Sewing machine and attachment for producing scalloped shirred trimming material



E. L. SEAMAN March 17,

2,631,556 SEWING MACHINE AND ATTACHMENT FOR PRODUCING SCALLOPED SHIRRED TRIMMING MATERIAL.

2 SHEETS SHEET 1 Filed 001,. 11, 1950 :Fil E1 E Emil- INVENTOR. DWAAD LSEAMAN By A Mug, 4

A TTOANEYS March 17, '5 SEWING MACHINE AND ATTACHMENT FOR PRODUCING SCALLOPED SHIRRED TRIMMING MATERIAL Filed Oct. 11, 1950 2, SHEETSSHEET 2 IN VEN TOR. 0WARD L.$EAMA/V Patented Mar. 17, 1953 SEWING MACHINE AND ATTACHMENT FOR PRODUCING SCALLOPED SHIRRED TRIM- MING MATERIAL Edward L. Seaman, Garden City, N. Y., assignor to S. & W. Sewing Machine Attachment 00., New York, N. Y., a partnership Application October 11, 1950, Serial No. 189,492

2 Claims.

This invention relates to sewing machines and attachments therefor, and more particularly to a device for making a novel form of decorative trimming produced by simultaneously laying a strip'of material in a sinuous path and shirr-.

ing it as it progresses beneath the needle to be stitched.

An object of the invention is to produce a fully automatic mechanism for making the aforesaid trimming.

Another object is to provide a device of the above type which can be attached to a standard sewing machine without substantial alteration thereof.

The novel trimming described herein and the.

method of making it are not the subjectof the present application, being claimed in my copending application Ser. No. 189,493, filed Octomin, 1950. 1

The invention will best be understood by considering the following detailed description of the apparatus by which the trimming .is made, its method of operation and the product produced thereby, referring to the drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a sewing machine bar is, to which is secured the foot I8 beneath embodying mechanism for making the new trim- Fig. 2 is a top plan view thereof with part of the head broken away;

Fig. 3 is an end view as seen from the right of Figs. 1 and 2;

Fig. 4 is a detail end elevation as seen from the leftof Figs. 1 and 2 with certain parts omitted and others-broken away showing the shirr- -ing and'materiale'feeding mechanism;

v1Fig'lj5 is a plan view of one formof trimming I produced by the machine; g

Fig; 6 shows the trimming applied in'the' hem between two layers of material which have been folded back after stitching;

ard sewing machine having a base ID with a head having an overhanging arm I I and a needle head I2i wl'iich carries a reciprocating needle bar I4 in which a needle is is secured, all in the usual manner. The head alsocarriesa presser foot mit passage of material 80 underneath it.

which (not shown)- are the usual reciprocating feed dogs to advance the material underneath the presser foot in a rearward direction. The machine is provided with the usual rotating main shaft I9 to which is secured the hand wheel 20 and pulley 2| through which the machine is driven. Attached to the main shaft I9 is a sprocket 22, .from which an auxiliary shaft 24 is driven by the cleated belt 25 through the sprocket 26. This drive belt is surrounded by a guard 21 attached to a casting 21a which is fixed to the head of the machine by the bolt 28, and which also serves as a bearing for one end of the shaft 24. Attached to the rear of arm I I is a supporting bracket 29 having a boss 30 in which the shaft 24 is rotatably supported near its other end. Bracket 29 is secured to arm I I by the bolt 3|.

It will be observed that the auxiliary shaft 24 rotates at a speed bearing a fixed relation to the speed of main shaft I9, the speeds of these two shafts being the same in the embodiment illustrated because the sprockets 22 and 29 are the same size. Shaft 24 actuates the shirring and feeding mechanism which will now be described.

The shirring mechanism is supported from the bracket 29 which has a lateral extension 34 and a forwardly-extending downwardly-sloping arm 35 at the end of which is a boss 36 drilled torotatably support a stub shaft 38. On one end of this shaft is fixed an arcuate arm 39 having a slot 40. Slidably supported in this slot is one end of a link 4| which can be locked in position by the wing nut 42, the other end of this link being eccentrically attached at 44 to the end of shaft 24. Theends M and 44 of the link include suitable bearings. Thus, revolution of shaft 24 rocks the stub shaft 38 to the other end of which is fixed the arm 4'5 which carries the support 46 for the shirring blade 48. This blade is provided with a serrated forward edge to grip the material and is pressed downwardly, by means of a spring, against the shirring plate 50 which is fastened to the base lll of the machine and has a portion5l which is spaced slightly from the base II) to per- As the machine operates the shirring blade 48 is reciprocated in a forward and backward direction forming folds in the material 52 Which is fed between the portion 5| of plate 50 and shirring blade 48. The size of the folds may be varied by changing the point of connection oflink II to the arm 39. This particular form of shirring mechanism, which is known per se, is well adapted to the production of the novel trimming but be substituted for such a. tube. of tube 16 is positioned to feed the material 52 directly onto the top of portion 5| of plate 50.

j --As may best be seen in Fig. 2, the continuous reciprocation of the shirring material guide 15 from one side to the other-ofv the line of stitchingother forms may be used and the invention is not limited to any particular form.

The shirring material feeding means is supported from an arm 60 rigidly attached to the boss 36 of arm 35 and carrying at its forward end a bearing 6| rotatably supporting the shaft 62 having a collar 63 to the left of the bearing. To

the right-hand end of this shaft a pulley 64 is fixed, this pulley being driven by a belt 65 which is driven in turn by the pulley 66 fixed on shaft 24 adjacent bracket 39. The left-hand end of shaft 62 is in the form of a double-threaded traversing screw 68, having oppositely directed threads, the outer end of which is additionally supported by an angular bracket 69 having a longitudinal slot l paralleling the screw 58 and supported in the arm 60. Mountedon the screw 68 is a suitable nut ll adapted to traverse the screw, first in one direction and then in the ---other, asthe screw is continuously rotated. Attached to the nut is a tongue l2 which extends through the slot H1 and holds the nut against rotation while permitting it to move horizontally. Supported from the. nut H by the braces i4 and ,7 "I5 is a hollow shirring. material guide 16 which is in the form of a fiat tube of rectangular cross- ;section suited in size to the material to be used.

(See Fig. 8.) Other known. forms of guides may causes the material 52 to be fed to the needle along-a sinuous path, forming scallops on opposite sides of the line of stitching. This feeding of. the material, which is at -the same time shirred by the action of blade 4.8 causes the shirring ma-.

rterial to be laid down and. stitched in a unique and very attractive pattern as illustrated in. Fig. 5.- where the shirring material 52 is shown as sewed to a basema'terial 80 which would be fed underneath portion 5! of plate 50 as shown in Fig. K i. It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that the trimming produced by the simultaneously shirred and sinuously laid material 52. can be applied to any part of a fabric, either on the body thereof or along the edge and, by the conjoint use of suitable hemming attachments to fold a hem on the base fabric, the trimming may besimultaneously applied with the sewing of the hem, forming an attractive decorative hemmed ed e- Fi s. the novel trimming where it is laid between two layers of base fabric 8} and 82, these layers at the time of stitching overlying the portion of the trimming shown in full lines in Fig. 6, slightly less than half of the trimming, as shown in the dotted lines in Fig. 6, being cut off simultaneously with or following the stitching operation so-that when the layers of base fabric are folded back as shown in Fig. '7 a shirred and scalloped edging protrudes from between-the layers of base fabric.

A trimming material suitable for separate application to garments and the like may be. produced by running the shirring material through the machine without any base fabric, the stitch- 6. and '7 illustrate. another application. of l 4 of material through the machine. These adjustments will not change the basic pattern of the trimming but will condense or elongate the scallops and the depth of the folds in the shining, modifying the appearance.

While I have described'abov'e a shirred scalloped trimming laid equally on opposite sides of .a single line of stitching, the pattern may further be varied by adjusting the guide traversing mechanism so that the shirring material is laid predominantly to one side of the line of stitching so that the line of stitchin is not in the center of the trimming. Furthermore by using a two- I needle machine equipped with a cutter operating between the two lines of stitching two pieces "of scalloped shirred trimming having, of course,

The lower end edge.

taneously.

Various forms of textile fabrics or other sheet materials may beused as the shirring material fromwhich the trimming is produced. '--It'may be a material such as braid having s'elvage edges, or the trimming may be produced from strips cut from material and hence having unfinished edges. When such strips are used, they are preferably folded, as illustrated in Figs. 9, 10 and 11. Fig. 9 shows a fragment of a strip in whichthe fold lines are indicated at a and-b, and the unfinished edges at c and d. This material is preferably folded into flat tubular form as shown in Fig. 10, pressed and spooled for use so that the exposed edges of the trimming are folds. This gives an attractive body to and enhances the decorative appearance of the trimming. Instead of overlapping and folded ends as shown in Fig. 10, they may be folded as shown in Fig. ll. In either case, as thefolded'stripis laid in its sinuous path, the line of stitching catches all of the layers of the material, preventing the exposure ofa raw Instead of using a prefolded strip of shirring material such as. those just described, fed through a guide such as 16, the guide may be replaced by any desired type of folder so that unfolded material can be fed to the machine and delivered to the shirring mechanism in folded form. It will be understood that such folder would be reciprocated in the same manner as guide 16 to lay the folded material in a sinuous path.

While the invention has been illustrated by referenc to a detailed description of the present preferred embodiment thereof, it is not to be construed as limited to ,suchdetails since obvious modifications may be made; therein without departing from the spirit. of the invention as defined-inthe appended claims.

I claim:

1. A scalloped shirring forming attachment for a sewing machine of the type having a head and an overhanging arm with a rotating main shaft extending-through said arm and said head, said attachment comprising a fixed bracket adapted to be supported from said head, an auxiliary shaft rotatably supported in saidbracket parallel to said main shaft, drive means coupling said main and auxiliary shafts to cause them to rotate together, reciprocable shirring means supported from said bracket and driven from said auxiliary shaft, and reciprocable guide meansfor guiding material to be shirred to saidshirring means, said guide means comprising a double-threaded screw withoppositely directed threads extending trans- ."versely of theflinef of feed, means for rotatably supporting said screw from "said bracket, driving means connecting said screw with said auxiliary shaft to cause it to rotate therewith, a traversin nut on said screw, means preventing the rotation of said nut, and a guide carried by said nut adapted to receive the shirring material.

2. A scalloped shirring forming attachment for a sewing machine of the type having a head and an overhanging arm with a rotating main shaft extending through said arm and outwardly of said head, said attachment'comprising a fixed bracket adapted to be supported from said head, an auxiliary shaft rotatably supported in said bracket parallel to said main shaft, drive means including pulleys on the outwardly extending portion of said main shaft and on said auxiliary shaft and a belt coupling said pulleys to cause said shafts to rotate together, reciprocable shirring means supported from said bracket and driven from said auxiliary shaft, and reciprocable guide means for guiding material to be shirred to said shirring means, said guide means comprising a double-threaded screw with oppositely directed threads extending transversely of the line of feed, means for rotatably supporting said screw from said bracket, driving means connecting said screw with said auxiliary shaft to cause it to rotate therewith, a traversing nut on said screw, means preventing the rotation of said nut, and a guide carried by said nut adapted to receive the shirring material.

EDWARD L. SEAMAN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

